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Reading the Present Through the Past: The Roma in Postwar Kosovo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2019

Enkelejda Sula-Raxhimi
Enkelejda Sula-Raxhimi*
Affiliation:
School of Conflict Studies, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. Email: esraxhimi@ustpaul.ca
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Abstract

This article explores the relationship between memory, political violence, and identity among the Roma minorities in Kosovo. In the aftermath of the 1998–1999 conflict in Kosovo, countless Roma were forced to escape Albanian retaliation, accused of being Serb collaborators. Many had to resettle in enclaves near Fushë Kosovë on the outskirts of Kosovo’s capital Prishtina, others left for Serbian-controlled northern Kosovo or to neighboring countries or to Western Europe. Through an ethnographic investigation with displaced Roma families around Prishtina and in Prizren, the article examines how the communities mobilize collective memories of the violent past to adapt to a new political situation, find their place, and navigate their present within Kosovo’s social, economic, and political landscape. It shows that the past is a constant reminder of compromised loyalties toward the majority group, which in turn dictates their (non)relations. Roma voices and narratives about the violent past are not part of the dominant and official discourse; they are counter-memories, telling a story that is silenced and unrecognized by the majority.

Keywords

collective memorycounter-memorydisplacementidentitypolitical violenceRomaKosovo
Type
Special Issue: Collective Memories and Legacies of Political Violence in the Balkans
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 217 - 231
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2019 

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